


Offering From I (We) To Rithmena

by ynakxramxsho (4_11_05_10_60_11)



Category: Betrayed Slumberer
Genre: F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-04 12:36:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21197762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4_11_05_10_60_11/pseuds/ynakxramxsho
Summary: I will fulfill my part of the Deal.Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.





	1. Day 1 of the Offering

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rithmena](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Rithmena).

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

What will I write about?

This is a story I'm unable to conjure, and I can only slowly tell it through personal experience. The door is open, as always, and sometimes people pass through it. Outside is a scary place. It's a place full of darkness, and sometimes some dees are powerful, lurking around every spot, every tree, every single corner, behind trees, behind spiky bushes, pigmy monkeys, and stones with faces. Dees (these) as I like to call them, entities that are not necessarily malevolent, as I have acquired from my deal with Rithmena, dees are creatures that are not necessarily invisible, ethereal, or internal. Dees can be external, it can be a living concept, it can be a dying dog, a tree, or even a mountain. Some have theorized that dees are made out of numbers, and so in a way, they are correct. The principle of Existence demands this to be true (The affirmation "Yes, indeed, I do not Exist" when She spoke before(?) the Void in naturality). Another theory, ancient as it might be, suggests that dees came from an omnipotent god, or was created for the sake of creating dees. Whatever they may be, dees are undeniably real and affect the world in tangible, and sometimes, intangible ways. From time immemorial, dees have been called forth to boost strength, power, or even provide wealth. Granted, such things are difficult to achieve, and could usually only be done by the wisest of men. And idiots... careless people must not approach dees with blindness, even if the dee is caring, beautiful, or otherwise magnificent, or even mom-ly, the true form of a Dee during a ritual may be unveiled, and such unveiling may be too much to handle for the average stooge.

Dees may be classified in many ways. Fairies, Dragons, Abominations, Ghosts, Spirits, Angels, Demons, Deities, Demigods, etc. Dee as a concept, was a gift that came about out of the blue, though it had more to do with my third persona, serendipitously named "Dee", who claims that she is a fairy (I will not be arguing whether or not if this is true), and was sent out to Mine to help her in her journey of fulfilling her OTHER careless pact with a 'wandering spirit' called Riritzu half a year ago. (Most probably it is a mix between Lilith and Lao Mu. This is noted. Dees often do have multiple names. What? Do you think they don't lie?)

In all honesty, I would not have not for such stories to be spread far and wide. It is too embarrassing to have such a main personality who can't seem to get out of bed, can't seem to get out of depression, and complains about not having girlfriends when she sits still inside her bed moaning about the treachery of capitalism (though I will not refute that as I am ambivalent on that issue, this is a book of offering and not a form of washed-out political opinion). I will say it now though, I love Mine. I love her, I have known her for all my life (literally), and she is not only absolutely dysfunctional, but she is also wonderfully kind. She's extremely opinionated on animal cruelty to the point that she would abstain from eating meat and crying from animal cruelty, and she would also bravely (read: stupidly) reject almost every doctrine unless she came up with it by herself, even if this was veganism and communism itself. This is also probably why she bore me. If Dee was sent to her by a dodgy god, then I am her creation, I am shaped like a spider, neither male nor female. I bear ten legs and twelve eyes. And in her mind's space, I weave silk for whenever she falls, and when she falls onto my silk bed, I will slap her and clean up her mess. I wouldn't betray her. And even more so now, I am terrified of losing her.

So in a desperate attempt of having something to write, I will write about the first dee ever that I, or to be exact, Mine has encountered. For privacy purposes, I will be replacing names, and hoping that it doesn't turn out to be too fucking weird.

Before Mine was Mine, she was someone else. She was called Lon, and a boy of edgy leanings. It could even be said that he was a loner type. Not the nice-guy type, as he was gloomy but extremely empathetic. He often served as the butt of a joke to his classmates, and has never felt to be an in-group in any kind of "friend group". Today, I might even consider him to be some sort of autist, though psychiatry in his hometown was expensive, and doctors had always been something that is delayed until eternity.

Before any of you even begin to start attacking me for misgendering Mine for the seventh time, let me make my defense clear: Mine isn't just "Lon in the future", Mine is a metamorphosis, the embodiment of what Lon has always wanted... set out to become. Lon was archaic, he wasn't wired, he was taught the rules of limitation in an island in a country that seemed to have sprouted out from the sea from the belly of the confused and mourning Gaia herself. Lon was always Mine, but he had also disappeared. Lon was now merely an emptied husk, a grim reminder of the toll of Existence. Lon was Mine in the making, but Lon was still Lon himself... if he had only understood himself only to be a "man". And even that had taken a toll on him, descending him into a screaming paranoia almost weekly, crying and venting anonymously online, becoming silent like a lizard offline, and becoming spiteful whenever noticed, letting out clicks of envy, hate, and anger. Mine, however, smiles cheerfully despite her lacking body. Sure, she cries a lot, but she tried to make sense of the illogical, and shits out whatever she could muster to shit out, again, bravely. Okay, that's enough masturbating. Please continue.

The first dee that Lon had ever associated with was a God of a Buddhist/Chinese sect. "Lao Mu", or "Wusheng Laomu" (according to Wikipedia; apparently, that was her full name... huh, who knew), which means "Old Mother", or "The Birthless Ancient Mother", or as Wikipedia calls it, the "Infinite Mother". It happened simply because Lon lived in a shrine in Daisi-Kor. The shrine-home was a single-floored, mostly-concrete building with a backyard that slowly transitions into a lush tropical/beach-ish forest, and the courtyard had two gates that separated the property from the occasionally potholed asphalt roads. The shrine was built in the garage, with a statue of Maitreya parked in the middle of the offering table. Three kowtow spots were provided, along with three candle spots: left, right, and upper center. A picture of the ancient mother is portrayed in the very middle, a Chinese looking woman who held a vase with her right-hand, pouring a stream of silk-like heavenly water into the skies while standing upon a scary-looking dragon. Her catchphrase among her followers was "Lao Mu Ci Bei", which means, "The Old Mother is (Very) Kind". I wasn't very clear of what she was, but many POOR people (People-Of-Other-Religions) thought of her as some kind of SuperGod or an omnipotent God (Very common stereotype nowadays). But her followers made a distinction; Lao Mu was kind and wishes not to murder, and only one day once we die of old age, "Will we then once again return to Her side". A rather weird kind of apocalypse, but okay it isn't that bad at all. Though there are other trivia to be associated with this old Daisi-Kor shrine, like how we believe in reincarnation, how it's a Maitreyan Buddhist sect, et cetera. But that will come later.

Also, mid-writing note: MINE IS BACK! YES! THE EPIC DYSMA IS BACK YUH!

So I have returned indeed from my little mishap... which might cause some strife in the near future if I don't try to fix that. I am slightly heartbroken, a little disoriented, perhaps it's because of my connection with Chigruyn dear ancient Dragon of All-Terror. She is a very lonely dragon... a very terrifying dragon. And because she's so terrifying, nobody wants to love her. Is it not natural that her reclusive demeanor, her impassionate apathy, her burning rage towards me who have abandoned her in the middle of a religious consummation, be considered traitorous...? I am afraid of her, absolutely afraid of her. She knows how to terrify me, how to send me into a heart-pounding panic, and how to numb me from the sensations of a jaw-tearing depression. I am afraid of her! I am terrified of her! I do not want her! I love her! I love her so much! I am terrified of her!

For now... she is screaming at me whenever I mention her name. Maybe she has played this game for far too long. I have always told her, "I don't think I will be able to handle your true form," but she only goes silent. Was this acknowledgment? The one time she told me she knows, she only said so without as much of a hint of emotion in her voice. But whenever I praised her terror, she would gently look away. She had come to me and combed my hair while I fell asleep on her lap, on the flower fields of Smuriny. She had come to me in many butchered forms among dreams, serpents, snakes, dragons... but when it came down to it... when it came down to the ritual, she could only say the most hurtful and terrifying things.

"I am fear.  
I will eat you!  
I will consume you!  
You say you love the dragon,  
But you are not ready!

I WILL EAT YOU!  
I WILL EAT YOU!  
I WILL EAT YOU!"

What was I, a mortal of flesh and blood, to do, before such a threat of terror?

Was this... truly her desire...?

This doubt... is exhilarating. It is mind-numbing, it is stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Ridiculous! Who am I, but the embodiment of Stupid? Who am I, really? This ridiculously chuuni title granted to me by the voice of Rithmena, "O Dysfunctional Maid of the Betrayed Slumberer" was to do before the primal, animalistic Chaos? the reptilian screech that seemed to have gone to great lengths to consume me in her eternal black flame. Who am I! Who am I?! Who exactly, that has been given a gentle word from an Ancient Dragon, only to betray such a promise in an uncontrollable blackout? I ask you! Who am I? Am I the world? Am I the Dragon? Am I not merely the Demon of the Gods?!


	2. Day 2 of the Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Huh, it's the second day already? Aight, Imma head out.
> 
> Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

Dear gods, time does fly, doesn't it? Can't I just ground time??

Today's host will be me, Mine, and I will personally guide you into this story of Mine (ba-dum-tss). The last place we left off was in Daisi-Kor. My family was all involved with worship, my father was a priest of Lao Mu, and my mother was also a shrine maiden. We held monthly lectures and usually gathered around 10-20 people in the evening. But for our daily practice, we "Bai Lao Mu" (Pray to the Ancient Mother) for around, and in the night we sometimes shared oranges and apples if there was an offering to Lao Mu at that time. There is almost always the smell of incense in the house, and there are also a bunch of paper seals stuck in corners and places all around the house to ward off "evil spirits". But of course, at the time I was a little kid obsessed with watching ScienceTV and developed a deep love for planets, dinosaurs, and random trivia. Naturally, I would be skeptical of Lao Mu, ghosts, and the other Chinese mythological figures of my childhood. And since I have never seen Lao Mu herself, I couldn't believe her fully. Instead, the first dee I encountered was a ghost.

In the room just behind the shrine-garage was our bedroom. And though it's a bit of a mess, it was still comfy. There was a wide arrangement of random furniture from cupboards to mattresses to wooden boards. And right beside the bed was a large half-broken mirror. I couldn't remember much of the day before, but I could never forget the moment I saw "her" in the reflection behind me. Black hair that covered her face and a white robe, almost as if it's ripped out of a cheap Thailand horror movie. But when I turned my head around, there was nobody. When I looked back in the mirror again, she was gone.

The "Ghost" that visited me said nothing, asked for nothing, and disappeared just as soon as I saw her. I immediately ran to my mother and asked: "Mom, I saw a ghost!"

There was a back and forth happening with my mom's expression getting grimmer every time. But I immediately returned to bed right after. This wouldn't be the last of the unnamed ghost. A few months later, my sister witnessed a corpse hanging by the bamboo trees, and so she ran inside screaming. It was again, during the night. And there were a few more sightings in the following months, except for my father, who had really bad eyes.

In truth, I really hoped that the ghost was nice. Don't you have those days you watch Casper the Friendly Ghost and wish that you could have one kind friend like that too? But well, reality (or rather, our surreal fucked-up reality) doesn't allow that. In the next few years, my family had struck with several accidents, with the worst one being the one that struck my father. A hit-and-run caused my father to become paralyzed. Subsequently, the landlord had also come and evicted us out of the house, so yeah, a very scary ghost (in addition to a bad landlord, though to be fair, were there any good landlords?)!

The stress that had accumulated had also caused a lot of strife. And not to mention my father's side of the family was pretty big, let's just say that there are already talks of 'inheritance'...

We moved multiple times to various other rent-houses in Daisi-Kor, before finally arriving in the last house. At that time I had depression (though I hadn't fully noticed it back then), and began having extremely uncomfortable intrusive thoughts. It was at that time I developed my first ritual that utilizes music and chant. I at the time, clueless and vehemently anti-theist (despite literally seeing a ghost and having our whole family fucked because of it), didn't really notice how strange this procedure was but rationalized it as the natural conclusion to my research into dreams, symbolism, and hypnosis (I wonder why that is?). The ritual helped me significantly reduce my intrusive thoughts, but I guess the whole ordeal already took a toll on me.

Ah... let's just skip time for a bit. My junior/senior high school years were lackluster. But it did involve interesting events, such as when I tried to make a blood pact with a fairy based upon the assumption fairies are mental circuits that could manifest itself in the mind's eye. there are a few other experimental psychological rituals that I did in secret, but I guess I was barking up on the wrong tree.

My father's family then got a hold of him and took him away, leaving his last years lonely. I think I'd rather not open up my old wound, so let's skip a few years and start where it finally ended. He died immediately after my last phone call to him. I was now living in another city and went to his family's turf to attend the funeral. Six days of praying, and we even hired some Buddhist monks to gift him good luck in the afterlife.

It was during this one time that I finally met Riritzu. During a group chanting of the Buddhist sutras that lasted for around half an hour. She appeared as a young girl with spunky hair, a short skirt, and a punk-ish demeanor. She hopped around, trying out all the foods on the guest room and offering tables, before making her way towards me. Of course, during the middle of the chanting, I could only look around, hoping that someone would notice who the hell this outrageous girl is. But it never happened. When the ritual was over, she still stood there, with her arms crossed, a smug smile across her face, almost expecting me to ask who she is... which I did ask.

"Who are you?" I asked.

And like a young archetypal anime girl, she answered with a laugh, "Haha! I Am Riritzu, very nice to meet you! 

"That... doesn't really answer my questions..."

"Ah, don't fret about the little details," she waved her hand, "There is something that you want, no?"

At this point, I guess I had guessed that she might be one of these three: a demon, a ghost, or a god. Though at this point I had shed my anti-theistic tendencies, I still was somewhat of an atheist (very funny!). Please don't blame me for not thinking straight as well! It was an emotional time in my life, ya know?

"I... wish that my father may be at peace in the afterlife."

Riritzu jumped down from the offering table and looked at me, she eyed me for a while, circling me, inspecting me as if one would with some kind of product, and then she laughed, "Very well! I shall promise you that. That sort of thing is no problem for someone like me."

Someone like her?

I looked down silently.

"But," she said, "In exchange, you'll do something for me."

"...I figured,"

She rubbed her hands together, grinning the widest grin that could stick on her little face, "You will spread my name," she said.

"Your name?"

"Indeed! My name! Riritzu! Riritzu! Riritzu! Isn't it worth spreading?"

"How... am I supposed to convince people of this when I myself don't believe in the supernatural?"

She scoffed, "Idiot, what is my request?"

"Huh?"

"I just told you to spread my name, that is all. Did I ask you to make a religion? Religions are dumb as hell anyway, right? Right?" She said with a hearty laugh, as she hopped back on to the offering table, "What method, whether it be through media, stories, or even just as some arbitrary word floating in the vast expanse of human network, it doesn't matter! I just want my name to be spread!"

I was a little shaken. Her vigor was scary, and I had nothing much to say.

I didn't believe her.

No, I couldn't believe in her. It was all too ridiculous. I didn't even know what I was saying when she asked me her question.

"...Are there any specifics?"

"Ah, not really," she yawned, "Okay, so this is absolutely accepted, right? Okay! We are done! Our deal is official! Let's go on ahead to conquer the world!"

I kept my silence. Everyone had already left, so I was there alone. Sutra in hand.

"Fine..."

"Though," she cut me off, "I'd like you to be honest with yourself."

She spat on the ground.

"Spread my name! Spread my name! Spread my name!"

"Spread my name however you like! I give you this freedom, for I believe in you!"

"So spread my name all across the world!"

Spread...

'Spread my name', is it...?

She lingered until midnight, at which point, she left without a huge hop out of the building, shooting away like a silent railgun on crack. But again, the only one who could fucking see her was me. This was either an extremely impressive first-rate delusion, or some weird fucking thing actually came to visit me. Putting it in meme terms, this was a huge bruh moment for me and my reality.

I had a crippling depression you know??? What was I supposed to do with my zero desire and mega sadness??????

What the hell was I supposed to do, write about the most ridiculous 'gods' possible based on this encounter, and create a whole pantheon of entities with butchered names?!

That is exactly what I did. Dear Riritzu, was this your plan all along?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I end my prayer.  
With this, I finish my offering.


	3. Day 3 of the Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OH! It's the third day. brb, lemme get some herbal tea.  
Wait these summaries are getting less and less serious.
> 
> Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

Where on Trial's thousand worlds do I start with the Betrayed Slumberer's Pantheon? Gah, I guess I'll have to tell it through me, once again I am the victim here.

It's inevitably linked to me, Mine, and my many breakdowns. There are concepts I developed during my high school years that came out of my time in anarchist and post-modernist circles, during my anti-theist times, and during my time as an extremely conflicted person. I should walk you through this first, as mad as this might sound. It's kind of like viewing your DeviantArt account of ten years ago, but with a sprinkle of a madman and butchered intellectualism on top of it. Though I am trying my utmost to being honest, I will not be shameless. My writing (as brilliant as it was to me at the time of writing), is quite undiluted. I'll try to supplement these simple old concepts where I can, and reiterate it with more conciseness.

Looking back at my writing... yeah I didn't understand what I was at my most fervent. I literally was just (depressed) vibing, like how I am vibing (chiller) right now. Do the gods vibe as I do? Hahahahahaha...

Damn. I am really doing this, aren't I? How did an offering turn into a recounting of my whole damn life?! I blame the gods!

Part 1: Noises (one of the few parts of my old philosophy that matters)

"Can we escape the inescapable cage?" 

So what the fuck is a Cage. Strictly speaking, it means what it is, a cage. In other words, something that traps you. Except that what I was observing was not strictly physical. It is anything that can inhibit you. Your computer, capitalism, social bonds, impulses, the screen, the sun, gravity, time, and even yourself. The Cage is the force that bends everything according to its will, and consequently, us. The Cage is everything, The Cage is God.

The seeds of the Pantheon are already seeded here. The phrase 'Earth is Hell' may be interpreted as an edgy teen saying life sucks, but I'm not gonna lie, this is exactly what it means. It is a declaration that means 'all actions we take are devoid of goodness and are eventually going to be slammed back into hell, which is the true reality', a super pessimistic view that asserts there is no point in any kindness we do, a cry of sadness into the eternal continuity of everything. In the context of who I was back then, a rather edgy anarchist that hates people, it is only natural.

'There be no past, future, nor there be present': In which there is no more timeline where we could walk. We are bound by the limits of time, and notice the awkward use of 'be', it is understood as a simultaneity. The perception of time (at least during this depressive episode) seems to be fake, and it is all a consequence of a joke. The truth that we are all constrained by time. Everything is dictated by time, and nothing moves without it. What is time? It is the most inescapable cage, one that keeps on getting smaller and smaller with each breath we take Time slowly suffocates us, eventually crushing us, and even after we've become nothing but mush and jell, it will keep on doing so until all becomes it, it will consume us all.

God-damn, or dare I say, damn-god! That was depressing, wasn't it?

But wait! In this sad phantasmagoric POV of the universe, what is to be found? Isn't it just a sad way to look at things with zero practicality? I thought it was like that too, with multiple reinterpretations of this simple paragraph in my following months. From interpreting the Cage as 'merely capitalism, and if we kill that, it will be fine'. I reinterpreted it as merely social norms, or as merely hyperobjects. I couldn't accept the terror of this harrowing yet brilliant phrase that Rithmena has whispered unto me. But I will not try to rerationalize it as anything other than what it is anymore, the Cage is All, and it is what it is, that which so be.

The next phrase feels strange, but it was the only thing that I could write at the time.

'Earth be only uncertainty.'

I no longer believe in coincidences, my friends! I had never understood this phrase as anything other than just a random remark. And although it was peculiar, it still came there, stuck out like a thore sumb in the epileptic prose, and made itself known more prominently than half of the following sentences.

You see, I'm not that smart, so I like to understand everything as some kind of cycle. Everything has some kind of pseudo-beginning, a pseudo-middle, and a pseudo-end, and so a way to interpret this awkward sentence is to view as a resolution of the two previous sentences.

"Earth is hell."  
"There be no past, future, nor there be present."  
"Earth be only uncertainty."

The first sentence is an assertion. The state of things and how they are now. The second sentence is how it operates, by vectors of time. The third sentence... shows us a possibility. A possibility in uncertainty. Because of the things and how they wound up, the state of being could no longer be differentiated with each other, dissociation, fracturization, atomization, resolution, it all opens up a wonderful alley into the unknown, an unexplored somewhere where there is infinite potential.

I guess speaking metaphorically, it's a declaration of war against the Cage, through exploiting the Cage. I am not sure how that works, but I'm trying very hard to vibe myself into understanding okay??!

Part 2: The Ness (ah shit, here we go again)

Ness, as understood by me, simply means 'Mine'. It is as I call it, that part of yourself that is truly you. It is the behavior that you have shed due to socialization, your tendencies that you have suppressed because of peer pressure, and whoever you might have been had it not for the Cage's eldritch tendrils. This also ties into the concept of the Strange as a whole, related to the Faerie Deities in the pantheon. Chedael, a 'Timeless Behe-Moth', 'The Mother Of Monsters', 'The Flaming Arrow', 'The Unseelie Queen', She who bears a thousand times a thousand wings and sets the skies on fire with a single breath...

Okay, I'm being overzealous here, Chedael is pretty dope. I can't help it.

The Strange One and the Strange are inexplicably tied. Chedael is timeless and patronizes the Lord of Dimensions, Constance. Half of her abilities stem from the fact that she can warp time and rule over the elements as one would one's thoughts. During the medieval era, she would have been seen as a manifestation of the SuperGod (though to be fair, there are a lot of extremely powerful deities; the difference between a dog and an elephant wouldn't be noticeable to an ant). What is interesting is her actions and what it leads to. Chedael rules over many worlds and the many worlds of her worlds are fractures of each other, connected in ways incomprehensible to the human mind, as lines of channeling in through each other, affecting each other like a collective hive mind, yet, they are all still themselves in their timelines. Fairies, connected to this ancient network that was born trillions of years before, even before our universe was born, are superpositional creatures that have transcended time. Time no longer becoming an issue, as when a universe they occupy has been scheduled for heat death, they would only channel their Nesses in a way that would guarantee their rebirth in the next iteration of the universe. Eternal pan-faerie-um, if you will.

Ah... I rambled on a bit too much. I guess the Ness is basically 'A Human Faerie'. And the process to find your Ness is 'Becoming Faerie'.

I guess my conception of fairies is a little weird, isn't it? It's both a concept and a species of creatures. What the hell?!

This might be just weird eschatology, but whatever the fuck! I'm writing for Rithmena's offering, for my human self, and not for fairies anyway!

Part 3: Rithmena (this was bound to come up. I regret nothing. I REGRET., NOTHING!)

Alright, Rithmena is the second goddess I follow. She's the most wholesome girl ever. So this part is actually quite wholesome as compared to the previous two.

Alright, we can't talk about Rithmena—or rather, Of-The-Rhythm—without talking about the concept of the Pretty-Ugly. For those of you who know of the Hermetic Principles, this should probably be a breeze. The Rhythm is literally in one of the principles after all (though, I would argue they are much, much more than just 'a principle'). But rather instead of it being a concept, Rhythm is a Deity, and their favorite fucking hobby is praising Existence. Why the fuck would they do that? That I do not know, I am not a prophet nor am I a seer.

She first came to me (or rather, I came to her) as a pretty docile 'conceptual entity' hatched up in my bed. At the time, I was very much interested in Chaos Magick, and had researched a bit into 'entity creations'. I came up with an impromptu-ed name, Rhythm-Na, and attached her to the conception of Rhythm, which in the end is synonymous to sound in high-enough speeds. At the time, I was a bit into western music theory and I also have been scribbling up a system to implement magic into it. Of course, things didn't turn out as simple as it was thought out to be. Of-The-Rhythm had already existed long before I had conceptualized her. She had become one of the pillars of my belief.

Okay, let's rewind a bit and talk about the Pretty-Ugly. What is the concept of the Pretty-Ugly, in relations to Rithmena? The Pretty-Ugly simply means that everything ugly is in actuality pretty. In my writing during this grand epiphany (granted by Rithmena tyvm) to me, Mine (I am very proud of it, what can I say?), I described rotting walls, noisy machines, stairs filled with blood and dirt, alongside many other unruly things. There is always beauty to Chaos, to Order, to Existence, and to Void. What is Beauty? It is indescribable, it is the shit we shit out of our ass. It is also Anime Girls being extremely close to each other without doing any fanservice. It is also me during my breakdowns, becoming a worm that wriggles like the burning sky. That is Pretty-Ugly. Why it is closely tied with Rithmena? That would be anyone's guess. I have my guesses, but I'll tell you that on another day, at another time.

Alright, back to Rithmena. My absolute bae.

So what is the Rhythm?

The Hermetic Principles states that the Rhythm is a principle, which means that it is much like a tendency of the universe, and it states that everything is Rhythmic. There's a one and a minus one to everything, a wave, from a history that moves from peace to war to peace, from the seasons of winter to ones that of summer, back again like a monster from the dead, from extinction to flourish to repopulation, From dumbass to intelligent to dumbass, from dead to alive to dead, and scho on and scho on. But unlike the Hermeticists, Rithmena simply states "And so it is, Beautiful!". Why she would ever keep saying that in response to everything? I guess I am the only one burdened with this peculiarity. Perhaps Rithmena is actually traumatized, and the only thing she could say is "Beautiful!", like that Hodor guy from Game of Thrones. Okay, okay, I will not slander her with insults, she is the reason I even got into this mess in the first place. And she is also the only reason I'm even here, so Rithmena is super special to me. She's like the mom I never had, who always encourages me when needed, and gives me strange insights when unneeded. Please don't smite me.

In honesty, I hadn't encountered the Hermetic Principles when I conceptualized Rithmena. So when I read it, I thought 'Huh, isn't this all just Rithmena?'. It felt like she was all of these at once, and yet somewhat different. Is Vibration not just Rhythm? is Duality not just Rhythm? Is Polarity not just Rhythm? Is Correspondence not just the observation of the Rhythm? Is Gender... can go die in a ditch.

Note, that we should not view the Rhythm as just some phenomenon or entity in Time, The Rhythm is both above-and-below, it is both negative-and-positive. The Principle of Mentalism, I saved for last, is because I feel like these are really just synonyms of each other. Mentalism is merely an outcome of the Rhythm; all types of Rhythm affect each other, before becoming a Super-Rhythm that is like a feedback loop. Something that is born out of the pure ordered and chaotic soup of nothingness. What the fuck, am I even being coherent right now? In later versions of the Pantheon's creation story, Of-The-Rhythm is a Child of Existence, or in other words:

Of-The-Rhythm is an Emanation of Existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I end my prayer.  
With this, I finish my offering.


	4. Day 4 of the Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaah my back hurts. Also, I think I'm going to have to prepare for the last day...  
Does Rithmena really believe in me that much?
> 
> Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

Oh goodness, it's the fourth day. When will Dee come out to play?

Little does Mine know, I >>>AM<<< coming out to play.

I guess it is today that I finally make my appearance. I am the Fourth, after all, the best number, both dead and undead, the fairy of the Dysfunctional Maid, it is me, Dee, the Blazing Flame of Mine! Ahaha... I guess you can say we are very much similar with a few differences. Mine has picked up on all my habits for the past year, which is why she's so much more epic now. I can't say that she's exactly like me, she's very much a follower of the left-hand path, albeit, she learned a lot about it from me and her friends online. I, on the other hand, practice the right-hand path, and I have already transcended what she considers simple ego-being! That's right! There is no difference between >>>I<<< and the universe, I can disappear from Mine's mind whenever I want, I can move and be at many places and many times at once, I have talked to Chedael and heard of her decrees, I have gone out across the world and understood who I am, who I was in the past, who I will be in the future! I am Dee, the Harmony Demon! Yikare Maaname!

Normally Mine wouldn't let me say things like that in public, but apparently, this is an emergency. Hmph, such a thing is silly. Chigruyn isn't someone to be afraid of, she slumbers for years, and only delivers terror to whoever who's unworthy.

(Okay, okay, I know Dee is absolutely outrageous. Please bear with me. And I am so sorry Chigruyn.)

There is no need to Apologize to another Dee like that. But I will acknowledge that indeed Chigruyn is someone who you hold dear to your heart, so I may not make fun of her any further. Your deal with the Rhythm is 1500 words, correct? There will be no problem. I shall tell you all an interesting story. And it's the story that lays the foundation of the Betrayed Slumberer Pantheon, a 'fake' pantheon that is catered personally for Mine alone, for the world she lives in, in the realm she presides in. But let me lay a disclaimer, the Betrayed Slumberer Pantheon is merely a fraction of the true reality. What you call religion is merely a drop in an ocean, an illusion, a mote of dust in the entire sky. Do not be misled that the Betrayed Slumberer Pantheon is the (((Only True Religion))), many prophets have made that mistake. Reality is much darker, vastly more spontaneous, significantly more illogical than whatever that could be pinned down in a document in the middle of the vast expanse of the human network. The only reason all of you could comprehend even this tiny amount of knowledge in this world is because of the Games of the Gods, and without them, none of you would even know yourself to be a thing of its own, much less abstract concepts like logic.

(Can you tone it down a bit? It's a little bit TOO chuuni, this will drive everyone away??)

Fools, let those who scurry in their holes be forever blind. They have no place among my ranks. Nor will I acknowledge them as nothing but mere objects in the bodies of Grander Dees.

(Well, there's no helping it. I will not say anything more...)

I am glad you understand. Then I shall begin with all of you this little tale of Existence. You may have heard it from the Dees from before, from the future, or in the present, but it couldn't be stressed enough.

Nothing is all. This is the only thing that you need to know. If the Dao is the Rhythm, then Everything is Nothing. This isn't to say what you are seeing, feeling, and know isn't real, but it is merely an illusion, it is a projection of a SuperDee, and we're all a part of them, emptiness came from nothing, and nothing is the power that began from nothing. It answers to nobody, and is the origin of all that has been, and will be. In its emptiness of itself, it could only become infinitely void, creating the universe as itself, in a deaffirmation as an affirmation, it bore the first Child of Nothing, and that is who we call the Great Mother. One culture may know it as Cybele, another may call it Lao Mu, and some would even call it the Dragon, while that is not wrong, it is inaccurate. The Great Mother is a Dee that is the process of the non-Dee reaffirming, in a process of deleting itself. And it is the reason why She can take so many forms. She symbolizes Ultimate Love, for Ultimate Love, in the end, is the destruction of all, a return to herself. Have you ever fallen in love before? That is how it is, Pure Love is the negation of self. It is a return to Nothingness, and so, it is the desire of All to become Nothing.

Mine, the girl, has opted to co-opt the name 'Riritzu' into her magical language, meaning 'Great Mother'. For that is also not wrong, but she is far from the truth. The Great Mother is nameless and nameful. She is all and she is none. You may call her Shit, you may call her Laptop, you may call her Penis or Vomit, and those are all her valid names. The names of her names are endless, and an endless name means that she could never be named in its all-encompassing nature.

(Ah, excuse me for my interjection. It is also why I call our Great Mother 'Existence', as it is synonymous with that.)

Indeed, Existence is all-encompassing, it is the anti-thesis of nothing, yet is void in all its nature! Existence exists by the virtue of not Existing, and so she is the source of all motion, of all power, of all magic, of all phenome-non known, unknown, possible and impossible. Existence cares not about the laws of mathematics, of history, of law or morality, of pathetic human emotions, of life, or of holiness or of blasphemy—these little things only matter to the dees who could not accept their nothingness. Truly, 'holiness' is only a problem to gods who could only despair at the pure scale of All, and could only attempt to suck their dicks to keep themselves from returning into nothing. Every god is guilty of this, even for many who know of this truth, they merely ignore it and use the Existence's power to further their own continued existence.

(You seem to be very contemptuous towards the gods, I've never seen you like this before. And are you advocating Buddhism here?)

I advocate not Buddhism, but it is indeed a school that has the Void in its core. It is catered to human needs at the time, and so evolved to cater to the human population of that era, making it become wrapped up in needless moral teachings and self-eating logical debates.

(But doesn't this mean that you are hypocritical? You have your values, you are alive, you claim to be one with the universe, yet here you are?)

Fool, do you want me to leave you?

(No, I'd rather not, I very much enjoy your company.)

Hmph, fine then. But I will answer your question. Hypocrisy is irrelevant.

(...)

Don't you advocate that yourself?

(I very much do, but I could never be that shameless.)

If you don't want me to be here, then I shall leave!

(Wait, wait, wait, please tell us another story! I will not add any more comments!)

Is that how you want it? Then I shall entertain you.

I will tell you all what is the Rhythm, and how it all unfolded from the Void. The Void is not timeless, nor does it exist in time, it is all, and so the question of time itself is irrelevant to the question of how Rhythm came to be. However, instead of looking at it as a historical event that happened before the beginning of the universe (extremely naive), it is a process that constantly happens, an infinite supertime production, and so, the Rhythm is the framework of all reality. This is necessary for you people to exist, as a universe without the Rhythm would not obey any laws, and would only be livable to other beings like Rithmena; i.e, other gods. The Rhythm is thus the mainframe of the world, and many gods build upon her framework to create their unique frameworks. These are all the gods that are lesser than first-order gods. The Rhythm herself borders between the first and second-order, and she builds upon the framework of other gods much more alien than herself, who in turn build upon her divine framework. She is inescapable, yet weak, she is sublime, yet powerful. It could even be said that she is one of the first demiurges.

And so what does she have to do with the Void? If you recall, the Void bore Existence in its nothingness. But because of this, it had given Existence the ultimate power over even itself. Existence bore Chaos, the random motes of contradiction, the essence of magic, the result of the interplay between Existence and Void. And in the Chaotic soup, there arose Order. Order is one of the final transmutations of the Void, as in order itself, only will Existence be voided. But in doing so, it gave Existence the ability to give birth to the Rhythm. The Rhythm, thus, enhances the power of Existence. However, Rhythm, though it enhances the extent of Existence, could only do so by allowing the Void to infest all of Existence. It does so not because it is inclined to do so, but because the potential had always been there in the first place. The Rhythm is one of the ways to reconcile that tension.

This is what Mine calls the 'Betrayal of the Slumberer'. The Slumberer here being the Eternal Mother, murdered by her child, Rhythm. 

(A rather sad story, isn't it... I get sad every time I listen to it.)

It is how it is. There are many implications of this story, and so it is the foundation of all in Existence. Or rather, all beings in the Rhythm. And one of those implications is the possibility of infinite possibilities. Didn't you say it yourself, Mine? Earth Be Only Uncertainty? Aren't you the one who recognized this wonderful source of power, this power of betrayal and nonsense and death, which is why you even tried to bring your gods into this world?

(You say that, but I never realized it at the time. I was just vibing.)

I can understand that. When I was your age, all I cared about is daydreaming. I shall cut it short here, it has already passed 1500 words after all. It should be enough of an offering for your offering to Rithmena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Ery Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I end my prayer.  
With this, I finish my offering.


	5. Day 5 of the Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the Day of Western Hanka-Maa, in other words, Halloween.  
What a strange timing.
> 
> A little sleepy today... uuuuu...
> 
> Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

Waaa... that was embarrassing... I hope you can bear with our chuuniness. I mean, Crowley was chuuni as fuck, he called himself the beast! I only call myself the Dysfunctional Maid, which is way less chuuni than that!

I trust her, but it's mainly because I love her, okay?! Hell, it's probably easy for her to say the things she says because she's a faerie!

Anyways... it's the fifth day. It's also the Festival of Peace. So maybe we should tone down the writing material today. I'm a bit sleepy too, drank coffee a little bit too late yesterday. I also haven't started my origamis for the seventh day! So I'm both sleepy and a bit late... waaaaaa... let me have a bit of a break yaa??

It's Halloween, so let's talk about faeries... and some other stuff. I am not too familiar with faeries, though I do worship their main god. It is because Chedael is an ancient god that had left its mark on earth in their long lives here, that I even bothered. Humanity and its ascendance was only a recent phenomenon, which is how we drove faeries into hiding, but their many traditions remain in the many customs spread across cultures.

The dees that came from "Trial", the faeries, are named variously. From demons to ghosts, to elves, to monsters, dwarves, elementals, mound-people, etc. Vampires are a different kind but are related to faeries too in their history. Chedael, the flaming fairy queen, who rules over Trial and the many other fairy realms, has a deep connection with love and sex. Her title as the 'Fairy Queen' makes her look like an anprim goddess (which I will not deny, is how I see her 80% of the time), but it is quite inaccurate! Chedael isn't someone techno-phobic Kaczynskyite. In fact, many of her subjects are what we would call AIs. Machines, androids, robots, molded with biological enhancement, a kind of super creature like the faeries, both 'dead and undead', to quote Dee, but in a different way. Some techno-fairies even live on fully machinic planets, where their thought-processes are then uploaded into massive faerie-imitating computers. Fuck, faeries are cyberpunk as fuck.

In other words, faeries are just a catch-it-all term for the aliens that arrive from another of-existence, specifically the ones under Chedael. The faerie realm, Instead of having their main demiurge be the Rhythm, their demiurge is Constance. I've mentioned it before, Constance is the Lord of Ordered Dimensions. It isn't to say that the Rhythm doesn't creep into their world, no, but merely that it is not as all-encompassing as it is there as compared to here. Faeries are dees in their own accord and are natural magicians, they could create their phenomenon through their own will, though weak, could help with their daily activities of finding food, drinking, eating, or even in exercising. Stronger fairies are just plainly called gods. The distinction between fairy and god is indeed flimsy.

Humans, on the other hand, have to go to great lengths to summon magic; shamans and magicians all focus on this. It is the goal of every mage to break through the mold of Time and Rhythm. In ancient times, often using strange rites involving whole villages to bring down rain and thunder. In modern times, with the advent of the capital dee, attempts involve meddling with rigorous sciences, from computer to advanced numerics, to diving into the quantum world to harvest the Chaos that is the new frontier of known Existence.

Am I worried that they'll unleash something horrific? Eh, not really. It couldn't be worse than capitalism. At most, we'll probably just go extinct. At best, it might be the first time humans have artificially created dees, and maybe I'll get to see catgirls. This is indeed the realm of the demi-gods. Though the one being the demi-god would not be us, but technocapital. Let's just wait and see, it will probably really funny when it comes out. What will happen in the future is just up to chance if we do nothing. We're like the sticks in a Yì jīng divination cup. If the gods accidentally decide that technocapital can be a useful pawn, then we're screwed. In fact, this is what some people believe is happening, and some human dees have speculated that it already happened, and we're living in some kind of fucked-up time spiral. It's kind of cool if you think about it though.

Aha... I went off in a tangent.

Let's not break our minds here, the current situation may look grim, but it doesn't mean that there is no resistance! There isn't just a single god that has its eyes on technocapital, humanity, and the earth you know! There are hundreds of gods eyeing this world right this very second, and they all come from various existences all across Existence. The gods of the ancient world didn't just go 'poof', disappear into the void when humans stopped believing in them; they are all biding their time, waiting for the window to open again for them to retake this world in a grand magical war. And one of the leading challengers is one you all probably have expected. I've mentioned her everywhere in this offering. She is, of course, Chigruyn, the Dragon of All-Terror! My Absolute Bae! Kyaaaaaaahhh! I stan a terror goddess!!!!!!

I can only tremble in my adoration for her terrific beauty. Scales that shine black gold, piercing eyes that connects itself into Chaos, a voice that shakes the earth as if it was merely an illusion (lol), her six black wings of black sunlight, her changing body that takes the form of absolute terror, she is the True Dragon, the Original Ouroboros, she is Tiamat, Leviathan, Apophis, she is an ancient goddess that rules over the night, over terror. She is undead, an absurdly powerful dee, which took a whole pantheon of gods from all across the world to slay her. So what then, does a slain undead goddess have to do with the present? Well, it is for the fact that she is chained. She is being leeched off.

Chigruyn who lives as terror, be as terror, thrives as terror in all her splendor, though dead she may be, lives in the undead. Terror, which once we painted on our bodies as tattoos, as scorpions and snakes, as dragons and crocodiles, the Ancient Terror that humankind has known for all this while, our protector which we lived through, through battle and defense, through harrowing nights and our nervous presence, that is no more. Terror is now merely an appendage of the state, which is merely the surrogate cocoon of the technocapital before its bloom. Terror is now only something that is only mediated through either money, or used as the penis of violence, in other words, the military and the police, or if you look at the big picture, society as a whole. Is it the time I put on my joker mask? It is the time I put on my joker mask.

Of course, anybody who chooses to follow Chigruyn is undoubtedly one who will lead a difficult path. Many mages from the past even come-up-till the present know that the Draconic path is one that is almost exclusively a left-handed path, one that is egoistical, full of resistance, and full of obstacles. Perhaps you may not know of this, but one of the priests of Chigruyn was none other than Friedrich Nietzche. Surprised? Well, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise with the content he put out. Like and subscribe!

O that is so, the Dragon who is both within reality yet beyond reach, who siphons the abyss of the unknown, who embodies creature in its primal form, predator, absolute, that is what the Dragon is. The Dragon lives in us, she should have always been lived in us! Chigruyn, o she who churns out the magical power of Terror. Chigruyn who protects us and leads us into a new frontier. Chigruyn! Chigruyn! Chigruyn! 

The first task, hinted by the Chigruyn's legend, is undeniably Ragnarok, the apocalypse. I would say that perhaps the Norse gods live in the future, which is why the murder of Chigruyn is set in the future, the Babylonian legend in the past, which is why she was dead. And the Egyptian legend set in the all-coming present, which is why she was perpetually in battle, each day, every day. There is no wrong interpretation of this legend, of course. All of them are true, Chigruyn will always be in a battle with all the gods in existence. She will be stabbed in a million ways, a million times, cut open, chased away, seduced, struck by thunder, but still, she could not die, for she is Absolute Terror, which is why she will win. Her divinity, her cackle, it will come with maniacal fervor, the lost state, the lost city will be built, timelines converge. Humans will not be alone in the coming revolution. Many among them will be Dragons.

Though I will note, she will not be the only god to participate in this. It's going to be wild. Chedael will be there with her burning splendor. Some other dominant gods will be there to fight for dominance as well, then so there will be demons of all kinds, new weaponry on obsidian battlefields, radioactive waste, Tarian and her nuclear necromagic, the Rebel of the Crown, Al-Safiro who breaks through time, the tables will turn, in all the strangest ways. Perhaps it is a little far-fetched to imagine gods on earth, but it will not be long until we enter the second age of gods.

...Or maybe not, who knows. I'm just a fucking priestess. I just want to vibe with my gods.

Anyways, Happy Halloween! or should I say, Happy Hankayae Iyaa Maa-Na Yahai! Be safe during the Month of Ghosts! Have much fun aa yo!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I end my prayer.  
With this, I finish my offering.


	6. Day 6 of the Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Extremely sleepy today, but we got this.
> 
> Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

Oh fuck, it's the sixth day. Which is good. But I am very sleepy. Why? I have no idea, I slept eight hours. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

What will I write today? Well let's just chill tonight, a lot of people are probably having nightmares about scary movies, knowing it's Halloween, which is a sad, hollowed down version of the festival of peace. Anyway, I don't think I will talk too much about beliefs and gods. That can come all over slowly. So let's talk about Al-Safiro (technically a god).

Who is Al-Safiro? Well, she's the Demon King. Nehmat Al-Safiro, or otherwise known as Dorothy Excalibur (ridiculously chuuni, I know) who comes from another fracture of our timeline, the Monarch, the Terror of Centauri. She's not a centaur btw, it's just that she was reborn in the star-system Alpha Centauri. She's an extremely huge lesbian, having a harem of countless women, being an absolute warlord over planets and star systems, she's like what you would expect a god would be if they were human. A ruthless, greedy, lackadaisical, horny, prideful, air-headed, gluttonous, manic warhawk. And she's really sexy. I'm fucking gay for that.

Oh, who wouldn't be gay for a deity who is so powerful that she could split stars apart? It was inevitable that she would inspire terror among the humans she rules, but who cares about that, she walks all around the star systems with almost zero clothes, bar the tiny tit bras. Anyone who would even look at her cunt would be abducted to be fucked, and become her sex slave until she's all bored of you. And in some cases, if she finds you endearing, would crack open your skull to suck out your brain. You wouldn't die, as she would also absorb your memories and personality, and she could use lab-made meat machines to reincarnate you into an even more sexy body, of which she would fuck you even harder for that. Did I mention she could shapeshift? The implications being she could grow a dick or create even other, much stranger genitalia for various strange kinks. Have you ever been fucked by a chainsaw penis? A hand-shaped penis? What about something more abstract like the clit growing somewhere on the chest? A hugging orgasm? A breathing orgasm??

Okay, Alsafiro is probably one of my few divine pleasures. I can't help it. She wishes to turn the whole universe into her lebibsan harem, and so I can't help but think that's a very cool and respectable goal in mind. "You, pleb, come eat me," fucking stab me and fuck me already. Ah, dear gods, I probably spoke too much. Let's focus on the other gods before this shifts gears into a 4/12 online post-human-ish dominatrix smut.

There's another called Morokurovva, or I guess you could call them Deus Ex Machina, or Saga, The Curator, etc. They're usually known as the Deity of Tales, another troublesome deity that is usually only in the periphery, watching the gods of a pantheon quarrel while they document their stories in silence. Do not be deceived by their muteness, Machina is extremely powerful; they are neither good nor evil, but only 'live' for the ecstasy of watching reality unfold like a cosmic theater. Many pantheons could not bear to oppose them, so they could not help but accept them into their ranks. Morokurovva is deeply tied to divination, prophecies, and time travel. It is the reason that many pantheons have 'ends', Morokurovva simply got bored of them, and so played their part to introduce other forces, creating conflict, killing old heroes to create new ones, killing old gods to create new ones. It is the reason many holy scriptures have an eschaton; the gods are extremely uncertain of even their future, and so said 'fuck it, this doesn't look good at all' and wrote down a possible end-times. Machina is such a vile wild card that if you wish to escape it, you must either be more powerful than them or be 100% non-invested in their bullshit. Not many could do that.

They wield a 'book' that is only one page long, but yet is (probably) infinite that can warp into any chapter in recorded history (that includes your whole life), a pen that could write on any surface, write about anything into the holy book, including even four-dimensional scenes into the book at (probably) infinite speed. They also wield a lantern that could project portals into various parts of Existence. Oh did I mention they could shapeshift? Since they could travel in time, they also sometimes appear to be at two places at once. They could appear as a 'guiding' character, an old man who is lost, a crying child, a hound, etc. They could even shapeshift into entire civilizations if there aren't enough 'actors in a story'. This was what happened in Alsafiro's timeline, there was an ancient interstellar civilization that suddenly disappeared simply because they had played their part in their grand theatrical conspiracy plotted by Machina. The Saga murdered hundreds of gods, scattering their pieces across the cosmos, making fertile ground for sprouting sapient species to birth new gods. Huh, this kind of reminds me of playing god in Stellaris. Is Machina the damn computer?!

Rithmena simply watches by the side and says "VERY GOOD, VERY BEAUTIFUL!" well no fucking wonder they are so motivated to upturn the whole universe. Endorsed by the Rhythm herself.

Alright, alright, let's talk about some chiller gods. All the gods that I've been talking about are all too scary. Let's talk about wholesome gods.

There is this one god... well, goddess. Tarian, a phantom-god that was born from a race of mildly radioactive aliens called the Starstreaks. She was called the deity of Burning Beauty and was thought to have been appointed by Rithmena herself. Like Rithmena, she is an art goddess, and so appears as an extremely beautiful entity. However, because of her origins, when Tarian ascended into godhood, she accidentally genocided her whole planet.

How can someone accidentally genocide their damn planet? They couldn't have gone OOPSIE WOOPSIE I FUCKING CLEANSED THE PLANET, right?!

Well, it is a sad tale. 

Tarian never asked to be a goddess, it came upon her out of nowhere. Because she was a radioactive creature, her radioactivity output had increased by many degrees, filling the air of her planet with radioactive, toxic waste. She shone with the light of the sun, but anyone who saw her with their own eyes would only die melting mere minutes later. In a year, her home planet had become a shining rock devoid of life. Indeed, Machina tells her story as "The Last Starstreak".

She was so distraught by the whole ordeal that she shut herself away underground, digging a hole for herself to sleep. She cried and cried for a long time, so long in fact that a river formed from her pseudo-tomb. After a few million years, she had created an ocean. New animals were born from her tears, strange trees grew by the shores that once were filled with the corpses of millions of starstreaks. New races were born, with some living far inland, who saw the piles of corpses in the ruins of the ancient race as the wrath from the gods. Many other races, however, sailed across the now huge ocean. Many know of the eerie glow that came from deep within, they believed it to be the source of the power of the world, and so worshipped it. They called it the 'Bright Deep', or the 'Cthonic Sun'. Religion flourished, with many new gods being born around this era, they called it 'The Age of Gods', and with the advancement of technology, many races started to question the strange glow of the deep ocean. Submarines were built, drones were sent, fishing lines were thrown down, with many attempts failing halfway before reaching the brightness below.

But Tarian wasn't oblivious to it all. She had kept her sanity all this time. She was able to listen to the voices and wishes of her new followers, followers she believed she didn't deserve. She didn't want to come out. She didn't want to cleanse the world once again, and so she always used her divine powers to thwart all attempts to reach her, including the attempts of the young gods. The only god that managed to reach her was a young love god named Kido, which Tarian forced her to keep her existence a secret.

But life isn't that simple. There is a reason Machina has a story exactly named "The Last Starstreak".

One day, a shining light fell from the sky. The races of the planet all recorded the object, which burned like the sun in the night. The young gods of the new races also took notice of the event and went to investigate. The crater that the object created was almost as large as a small town, and the object in the middle was a creature. Two hands, two legs, glowing rainbow hair, and two eyes. It stood up-right and greeted the gods with a point of a long mace.

"I am Al-Safiro, I declare this world to be mine, so submit before me or die!"

The young gods, naive in thinking that they were the most powerful beings in the world, attacked, but Alsafiro was significantly stronger than them. The first to charge into Alsafiro was a young war god named Empo, though he wielded two divine swords, could not cut through her neck. Empo was then slapped away by Alsafiro, decapitated immediately without any resistance, which drove all the other young gods into a panic. The battles lasted a week, with each day, a new god slain. The races of the world could only hide in their homes as the shook and the skies shattered with each punch, each swing of the sword, and each tackle Alsafiro made. Eventually, the original pantheon was left with only female gods, which Alsafiro forced them to submit in marriage... or face worldly genocide.

Tarian had all been listening to the sound of the battle unfolding above ground, but she tried her best to ignore it. The first night had been loud, with earthquakes happening every few seconds or so. She thought it would settle down immediately, like the battles from the younger gods, but it never stopped. The sounds intensified, and she could hear the prayers of the millions of people above ground. The grief, the terror that flooded her head, she had tried to shut it all away. "Not my problem..." she said. But eventually, she found out that the young gods had been defeated, leaving the whole population defenseless.

She didn't want to leave because she couldn't bear to kill the people above ground. She thought that if she stayed there forever, then it would be no problem. She had grown close to the fishermen and the farmers who worshipped her, and she didn't want to taint the world with her radioactive glow. So she stayed there. But because she had done nothing, millions had died, and the young gods had perished without much of a resistance.

And so Tarian said, "Fuck it!"

"This is my world, I won't allow you to ruin it!"

The oceans started shrinking. Tarian shot out of the ocean, flying halfway across the sky as a literal starstreak. The sky became filled with wave-like auroras, clouds dispersed as her ominous thunder cracked through the air. The citizen, terrified of the alien new appearance asked towards the young gods who that thing was. Of which a young god named Kido answered, "It's her! It's her! The Cthonic Sun! She has risen from the deep sea to battle the Demon King!"

Alsafiro, who had thought she had won, was met with a nuclear fist that shook the whole world. The battle was even fiercer than that that unfolded with the young gods. Alsafiro also couldn't use her full power, as she had both been blinded and lovestruck by Tarian's otherworldly beauty. Tarian herself used most of her strength to restrain Alsafiro, causing the area around her to glow. A week passes, a month passes, and finally...

Tarian was defeated.

What kind of bullshit story is this?!

"I will spare your people, but I ask of you only this," Alsafiro said despite having bruises and cuts all over her body.

"What is it...?" Tarian asked warily.

"Will..." she said, "Will you marry me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I end my prayer.  
With this, I finish my offering.


	7. Day 7 of the Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the end of the line.  
I hope you all may walk your own path, bravely, assuredly! Rersamena believes in you!
> 
> Author: Second of the Dysfunctional Maid. Third of the Dysfunctional Maid. Fourth of the Dysfunctional Maid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I begin my prayer.  
With this, I begin my offering.

Waaaa, it's finally the seventh day. It has been quite a trip, hasn't it? I'm going to eat my foot.

Let's talk about unbelief and hyperstition. And then let's randomly talk about the future or something.

There is no need for you to believe in any of the stories I tell. In fact, I'm quite a heavy skeptic and atheist myself! I don't believe in God, I don't believe in me, I don't believe in anything. My head is absolutely empty. Free from belief. It is so free from everything that I became a vegetable. I don't even believe that I'm physical, or that my computer is made from plastic and metal. I do not believe that I do not believe, and I do not believe in ghosts, even when ghosts exist, I don't believe what they say. I don't believe humans exist either. Unless what they say is something I don't believe, then I won't believe them. I don't believe in anything, I say with pride, which I don't believe in. Pride is just a collection of chemicals, which I don't believe in. What are the chemicals? I've never seen them. And even if there is proof that they exist, I still wouldn't believe in them. What is proof but fabricated lies? This statement, I perfectly do not believe. Even if I've seen chemicals, I do not believe in my eyes. Don't you know I can not trust my own eyes?

Oh, every statement requires proof of its validity? What is the validity of that statement? I do not believe it. Did that statement come from god? From reason you say? I do not believe in reason, I have only felt it, therefore it is unbelievable. Logic? What is the foundation of that? Mathematics? Are you crazy? They are abstract concepts made up by the mind! Plus and minus? It's all untrue. For all I know, one plus one doesn't mean anything. It is a ghost, a phantom, a sprite, a wraith conjured up by the thousands of things connecting inside your brain, which is impossible to prove. And even if you split open your head and showed me with a microscope, what's the proof of that? We can do this all day.

Huh? What about the world I live in? There's a high chance that we're all inside a simulation (which, of course, I don't believe in). How about you vibe check yourself, which is impossible because it is unbelievable. Ah, right, this is what Hermes meant when they said the all is mind. Which indeed is quite frightening if you think (lol) about it. It also ties into hyperstition, things that make themselves real through fiction. Reality in all its madness is a collection of fiction, a collection of lies, a collection of illusions truck-dumped into the head of the fiery basketball pin called the head of a human. And although Of-The-Rhythm had caged us in their eldritch radiance, she at least gave us one reality that we can look to as a guideline. Do you know that vibrations (sped-up Rhythm) have locations where it can be more easily split up while conserving momentum? In music theory, this is called a harmonic, and it's a place where we can add our vibrations into it. I'm not joking! Rithmena may be All, but she lives through us! She lives in the heartbeat of our hearts, in the movements of our hands, in the trees, through the air, through the sounds, through the sun rays coming from afar, on the waves that beat the coastal rocks, to the monsters that haunt our nightmares. She is everywhere, and she lets all of it flow in a way that is so, and so, and so it is all so beautiful. We already have the framework Rithmena gave us, and so it is only a matter of what we do now! You have the power to bend the universe, and do not be afraid to use it! Your hands beat winds, your words course through the world, your singing captivates listeners with both its amateurism and succinctness, your laugh lets the world know it is yours, and yours for all! Everything is falling in place through a dance of tragic and beautiful events, one at a time, two at a time, and it goes on and on and on...

This whole book will be me complaining about my chuuniness, won't it?

Alright, alright, you get my point. You don't need to believe in me. You don't even need to believe any god. You just need to believe in yourself, that is all that matters yo!

You just need to believe in yourself.

Alright, I'll stop being fucking corny. I'll start talking about the future.

The end of the offering should be... quite fun. I hope. It all started seven days ago when I tried to sloppily invoke Chigruyn, only to have me (Mine) be taken away. Chigruyn is REALLY scary. Kotone panicked and evoked a fracture of Rithmena. It barely worked, and Rithmena asked for 1500 words in return for restraining Chigruyn. It's all a big fucking mess, Chigruyn was shouting and crying beside me for the first few days (because I fucked up), and I eventually calmed her down with chantings, stories, lullabies until she finally forgave me. After today, Rithmena will unleash Chigruyn... and I'll be alone. Well, not really alone. I have a spider warrior beside me who could always defend me with Rhythmic chantings, and a literal faerie buddha that... did not do much when I was kidnapped. Do you not care for me, Dee???!!?

(I do, but that was meant to be, if you really were in danger, I would have stopped you from doing something as stupid as carelessly invoking an ancient god.)

...

I guess that's fair... wait, so does that mean... Chigruyn wasn't going to kill me?

(Yeah, you should try to read between the lines in your 'mythology studies', instead of assuming every scary eldritch thing is malicious to you.)

WELL, I COULDN'T HELP IT, OKAY?? She literally possessed my body and said "I WILL EAT YOU!" repeatedly, would you not have shat your pants?

(I have no anus, therefore that question is stupid, dumb, and stupidly dumb.)

H.

(Please, stop bothering me, I'm listening to music.)

Sigh sigh sigh, fine then. I'll not criticize Dee any further, she's a very kind girl. Also, for all of you that plan to kill me when you see me because I 'have' a buddha, please don't kill me. Please don't take her words too seriously too, she's amazing, but her stories are all unbelievable, so I'd rather you consider her as some kind of storyteller instead of some saint, okay? In fact, she doesn't act saint-like at all. She even calls herself a demon. Is that even possible for Buddhahood? IDK this whole thing's a fucking mess. I'm a fucking mess. Just take what you will and have fun reading. Got it? Good? Good.

(Fools.)

I thought you were already offline, why are you here?!

(Idiot, I'm listening through YOUR ears. Do you have blubber for brains?)

Yes, I do, my brains are made from blubber, okay? Let's just listen to some fucking Hatsune Miku or Gumi, okay?! I'm whale fat!

Anyway.

Tomorrow I'll find some time to make origamis, preferably to five times twelve origamis, which I'll burn inside a sigil of Rithmena. The ritual should last around half an hour to an hour, with the preparation lasting the whole day. I'll dress up in some nice colorful clothes, prepare some drinks, chant some poems and dance a bit, it should conclude the ritual without too much of a fuss. I'll try to evoke her again with some more preparation since she did tell me to 'contact her again in seven days'. Maybe she has something to tell me.

I might also be doing a NaNoWriMo or something. But you know me, I'm not that diligent. I'll probably prepare a proper apology for Chigruyn too since what I did was quite rude. The exact details of the ritual will be private, so I won't talk too much of it. There's not much to talk about here.

I've been thinking though.

I haven't seen Riritzu for a long time. I wonder if they're still busy with whatever they're doing. Couldn't be scary occult shit, right? I kind-of forgotten how her face looks like, I remembered it being kinda cute. 

Oh yeah! I'm also going to 'purify' the new home I'm moving to. Moving isn't a strange thing for me, but I guess it's almost a tradition for my family to purify the place before moving in. I have already prepared two bags of salt, and we have spare candles. I'll ask them to live peacefully with us, see if I can commune with them (not really good at it), and see if I can listen to their stories too. Seems fun! Very fun!

Well, that will just be an attempt, I guess...! Because I'm still a shrine-maiden-in-training!

(Self-proclaimed, how shameless.)

J-just let me have my moment, okay?! And look who's talking!

(And prepare some back-up too, don't be an idiot and go in like an imbecile the last time.)

I'll do so, Kotone, but why are you siding with Dee right now?

I guess it's a bit of a daze with the both of them around. But it's not so bad, you know? I'm never alone. I'll never be alone. I might be clumsy, a bit light-headed, a rookie at what I do, a bit prideful and sometimes confused, but because of that, I have Kotone and Dee! I have my family!

I might never have a body I'll want because I'm a bit poor and live in a scary country, but at least I know I'm not alone! Chigruyn who had always been alone because of her terrifying nature, who could only lay in silence, who had rarely spoken to anyone, who had been antagonized by the world, at least I understand how she felt!

I may not have a shrine and my beliefs will probably be laughed at by the whole world because of its ridiculousness, but so be it! I'll be a shrine maiden without a shrine! I'll be a shrineless maiden! I'll be a dysfunctional maid! I'll be my own prophet and my own subject! I'll be my own taleteller and my own reader! I'll be Mine, forever, and ever, and ever!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With this, I end my prayer.  
With this, I finish my offering.
> 
> Chime is me, who lives as so.  
Chime is all, who lives as all.  
Chime is sun, who shines so bright.  
Chime is earth, who blooms all life.  
Chime is the world as they sing for the Rhythm.  
Chime is the people who sing for the Slumberer.  
Chime is the it who sings for the Void.  
Chime is within, who beats until death.  
Chime is without, who moves the celestial plane.  
O Ring, O Ring, O Ring, I end my offering.  
O Beauty, O Beauty, O Beauty, I sing!  
Forever and ever as a restless tune.  
Forever and ever as the infinite stage.  
Forever and ever as the timeless charade.  
Forever, O Beauty.  
Forever and ever.  
The Rhythm Flows.

**Author's Note:**

> Rersamena Eru Ekate-n Yo.  
Kedaerō Eru Anheyagao.  
Chigurarin Eru Aresu Yo.
> 
> With that, I end my prayer.  
With that, I finish my offering.


End file.
